Geofencing is completely broken in the new APP

[baumbachaflocka]

The old app worked great with geofencing, it would not arm unless every device left the area. Now it always arms if just 1 person leaves. My system is configuration is the following: anyone arrives> standby, everyone leaves> arm away

They are both set to always enabled and I have made sure that both my devices are setup correctly with always allowing precise location, notifications and do not have battery saver on. Its so frustrating because the old app worked great and the new one is so bad and we were forced to switch when we added the new cameras.

More info there is 1 iphone and 1 android phone used for geofencing, I have it set to the largest area and no other automations except for the geofencing ones.

[ShayneS]

Hi,

Can you try utilizing this setup for your schedules with the Arrive/Leave feature and let me know the results?

1. Select Routines > Automations > Select the (+) to create the desired schedules (When created, schedules will be listed under the Schedules section)

2. Create and enable the Arrive automation under > Select Automations > Select the (+) > Add Action > Change Mode > Select Standby > Next > Add an Action > Enable/Disable an Automation > Select the desired schedule > Next > Select Enable > Next
                             
3.  Create and enable the Leave automation under > Select Automations > Select the (+) > Add Action > Change Mode > Select Arm Away > Next > Add an Action > Enable/Disable an Automation > Select the desired schedule > Next > Select Disable > Next  > Save
                     

When completed you should see your options listed under the Arrive/Leave section under Automations

Thank you 

[wenklaw]

Sorry but you guys at Arlo are super confusing.

old app I had this.

geofencing enabled but when I returned home it would resume a custom schedule I had created but if I left the property geofencing would ultimately take precedence, arming the cameras but them when back at home my custom schedule would be reinstated, this doesn’t happen now. Old app literally set up a custom schedule, set up geo fencing and the mode you wanted to return to when you got home. Worked for years, now this over complicated nonsense that doesn’t work, I will be returning the Arlo pro 5 to Amazon and posting my review, shocking stuff

[dleads]

right , app is free but the detection is what cost money - im paying for detection that is not operating when i leave the property unless it is manually changed - thats the frustrating part 

[BobbiePravda]

Having the same issues with Geofencing. Been using Arlo for almost 8 years, geofencing was working perfectly. Now that I added the home security system, geofencing is broken. It arms when I’m home all the time. I had to altogether disable geofencing.  Hope Arlo technicians will fix this ASAP

[Eswannell]

Hi, 

I cant seem to get the arrive/leave automation to work. The schedules seem to be working, I have one set up for sunset to then go into arm home and the other for sunrise to go into standby. 

But I would like it to set up the so when we leave it goes to arm away mode  and then to go back to the schedule when someone arrives. 

I've tried everything I can think off trying different setups in the schedule, arrive leave automation and tried different things in the modes. But just can't seem to figure it out. It's driving me crazy as I'm sure it will be something simple. 

One thing I have noticed it does say geofencing enabled in a notification, I've got a samsung s23. Also doesn't work on my wife's phone she has an I phone. 

Thank you

[DannyBearAgain]

Don’t waste your time, ask arlo to go back to the old app UI.

[alex_loo]

hi @Eswannell , we are on the same boat.  schedules work fine, but "arrive/leave" (ie geofencing) is not.

For my case,

1. I have seen geofencing working a few times, but not always.  For those few times that it worked, when both myself and wife were leaving home, it switched to "ARM AWAY" correctly, as configured.  And when either of us is back home, it switched to "ARM HOME" correctly, again as configured.

2.  I am feeling the problem related to my wife's iPhone recognized as geofencing device TWICE (which is wrong)

In another forum top, ARLO support seems to be aware of this bug.  I am waiting for an app fix.

Hope this helps.

Alex

[Nb540]

I have automations set up for geo fencing, where it goes to standby when I come home.. I also have schedule set for sundown to sunrise. 

If I have been away and come back after sundown when the schedule is active, it seems to change to home mode and doesn't respect the schedule aspect. How can I force it always use the schedule settings, regardless of if I am home or not, but still also have geo fencing for when I go out during the day? 

[StephenB]

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@Nb540 wrote:

I have automations set up for geo fencing, where it goes to standby when I come home.. I also have schedule set for sundown to sunrise. 

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That combination unfortunately doesn't work.  Hopefully Arlo will address that soon.

[Jeffi]

I have also been struggling with the new app’s logic for schedules and automations which worked fine in the old app.

My requirements are very similar to some scenarios described above:

Arm Home: when anyone is at home only arm the doorbell video

Arm Away: when no one is home arm all external and internal cameras, using geo-fencing

Arm Standby: when home, arm only all outside cameras between 8pm and 7am, using a schedule.

I have found that a schedule or geofencing automation on it own works but as soon as you create both they conflict with differing results depending on the settings that are enabled.

I did have an initial issue with the geofencing (Arm Away) not recognising when my phone was outside of the geofencing zone despite my phone having the correct location and notification services set as per the Arlo support article. I found this was caused by me changing the iPhone’s name from “iPhone” to my name as there is another “iPhone” in the household that meant I didn’t know which was which in the automation. I also had an iPad in the available devices so I disabled Arlo location services on the iPad so I am only using the iPhones as the geo-triggers. But changing these confused the Arlo app and I ended up deleting the geo automations, adding the iPhones up again in the Arlo app user profile (Privacy Center, Account, Available Geofencing Devices) which then saw their new names, and creating new geo automations for away and arriving. But as soon as I add schedule it all goes unpredictable.

Here’s how I think I’ve finally resolved the conflict and found a working schedule and geo automation that seems to work.

The aim is defining logic to:

- Not keep Arm Away mode enabled when arriving back at home in the daytime and overnight in Standby mode.

- Not set Standby mode when away - enable Arm Away mode 24x7 until our return I.e we trigger geofencing when we or anyone arrives home.

The key is the three Modes also require some logic defined to prevent conflicts.

Under the Routines tab, I defined the following:

Arm Away Mode:

- Device Rules - All cameras set to Motion Detected (not audio), Record a Video and Send Notification to Everyone

- Automations - select only Leave and Arrive. Do not set the Schedules - this allows geofencing to trigger when away and not go into Standby mode.

Arm Home:

- Device Rules - Doorbell only set to record and notification as above i.e Motion Detected, Record a Video and Send Notification to Everyone.

- Automations - select all, so both schedules (for night and daytime standby periods) and select both Arrive and Leave. This allows the geofencing logic to work with the schedule but the magic to avoid another conflict is in the Automation settings defined further down.

Standby Mode:

- Device Rules - all relevant cameras, in my case just external ones, set to record and notification as above I.e Motion Detected, Record a Video and Send Notification to Everyone.

- Automations - select all, so both schedules (for night and daytime standby periods) and select both Arrive and Leave. This allows the geofencing logic to work with the schedule but the magic to avoid another conflict is in the Automation settings defined further down.

Automations:

Schedules (2 periods defined):

- Home Daytime (my naming)

- Set the enabled automations to Arm Home and Standby only, not all 3. This is one of the required logics to avoid a conflict.

- Schedule - set When to be from 7am Everyday (define your own off time). 

- Then, Arm Home only under the trigger and Send Notification to everyone.

- Home Night (my naming)

- Set the enabled automations to Arm Home and Standby only, not all 3. This is one of the required logics to avoid a conflict.

- Schedule - set When to be from 7am Everyday (define your own on time). 

- Then, Standby only under the trigger and Send Notification to everyone.

Ensure both schedules are not greyed out or disabled by clicking on the left hand side of them.

Arrive/Leave (two defined):

- Arrive Home (my naming)

- Set the enabled automations to Always Enabled so all 3, the Arm Away, Arm Home and Standby are selected. This is one of the required logics to avoid a conflict.

- Location - Edit Geofence - set small radius (my preference, even this is too large but its the best they do!)

- Arrive - When Anyone Arrives (assuming you’ve fixed and set the phone’s geo location settings and these match the Arlo privacy settings)

- Then - add tasks for:

  Home Night - Enabled (this is the logic required to avoid a conflict)

  Arm Home

  Home Daytime Enabled (this is the logic required to avoid a conflict)

  Send Notifications to Everyone 

- Leave Home (my naming)

- Set the enabled automations to Always Enabled so all 3, the Arm Away, Arm Home and Standby are selected. This is one of the required logics to avoid a conflict.

- Location - Edit Geofence - set small radius (my preference, even this is too large but its the best they do!)

- Leave - When Everyone Leaves (assuming you’ve fixed and set the phone’s geo location settings and these match the Arlo privacy settings)

- Then - add tasks for:

  Home Night - Disabled (this is the logic required to avoid a conflict)

  Arm Away

  Home Daytime Disabled (this is the logic required to avoid a conflict)

  Send Notifications to Everyone

The key logic is the enable and disable tasks above need to be defined.

Ensure both Arrive/Leave are not greyed out or disabled by clicking on the left hand side of them.

So far its working for me with stand mode over night and turning off at 7am, then arming when leaving the house, and rerunning two arms him made when coming back, but I still need to test that geo-fencing Arm Away triggers if everyone leaves the house during the active standby period, and also stays armed 24x7 until we return from holiday.

Hope this works for you as well! 

[Jeffi]

Sorry - the last paragraph should read:

So far its working for me with stand mode over night and turning off at 7am, then arming when leaving the house, and switching to arm home mode when coming back to the house, but I still need to test that geofencing Arm Away triggers if everyone leaves the house during the active standby period (say to go out late evening for example), and also stays armed 24x7 until we return from holiday.

[wenklaw]

Good to see you’ve found a easy and straightforward to get it working 😂😂😂😂

[StephenB]

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@Jeffi wrote:

Sorry - the last paragraph should read:

So far its working for me with stand mode over night and turning off at 7am, then arming when leaving the house, and switching to arm home mode when coming back to the house, but I still need to test that geofencing Arm Away triggers if everyone leaves the house during the active standby period (say to go out late evening for example), and also stays armed 24x7 until we return from holiday.

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Thanks for sharing.  The logic is of course very complex, and I'll need to take some time to work through it.

One clarification here: I believe one aspect of your desired behavior is that the doorbell is always armed (treated as an external camera in "Standby").  Is that correct?

[StephenB]

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@Jeffi wrote:

- Home Night (my naming)

- Set the enabled automations to Arm Home and Standby only, not all 3. This is one of the required logics to avoid a conflict.

- Schedule - set When to be from 7am Everyday (define your own on time). 

- Then, Standby only under the trigger and Send Notification to everyone.

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Did you mean to say 8 pm here? 

If I understand the logic correctly, "Home Night" should switch to Standby at 8 pm, and Home Daytime should switch to Arm Home at 7 am.

As far as correct operation goes, it looks like "Arrive Home" always sets the mode to "Arm Home".  So if you return home after 8 pm, the system would remain in Arm Home overnight.  It would shift back to Standby at 8 pm the following night.

1. Have you checked that case?
2. If I am misunderstanding the logic, then what tells the system to go into Standby when you return home after 8 pm?

One workaround would be to manually switch the system to "Standby".

But there might be a more complicated solution - replacing "Arrive Home" with "Arrive Home Daytime" and "Arrive Home Nighttime".  "Arrive Home Daytime"  changes the mode to Arm Home, "Arrive Home Nightttime" changes the mode to Standby. 

Then create more schedule elements that are always enabled.  These leave the current mode unchanged, but 

• enable Arrive Home Daytime at 7:00 am
• disable Arrive Home Nightime at 7:00 am
• enable Arrive Home Nighttime at 8:00 pm
• disable Arrive Home Daytime at 8:00 pm

Behavior might be unpredictable if you arrive home at exactly 7 am or 8 pm.

[Richland]

You are correct about wanting front door always on or triggered when motion, package. No noise though. 

[Richland]

Whew. My brain hurts. I decided on Arlo about 4 years ago for the automation I could set up with scheduling and geofencing working together. It was easy. Now it’s broken. I am so confused now more than ever. It’s been since April and I am struggling and have 3 new cameras yet to set up and too late to return. I’ll try and decipher all of this. When I try to set up the “home daytime” and “home night” for the everything the same except the trigger I get a “scheduling conflict” and it won’t work. 

[Richland]

They won’t. 

[StephenB]

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@Richland wrote:

When I try to set up the “home daytime” and “home night” for the everything the same except the trigger I get a “scheduling conflict” and it won’t work. 

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Is this when you create the automations?  Or just when you try to schedule enabling/disabling?

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@Richland wrote:

Whew. My brain hurts. 

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Mine too.  This is way too hard.

[Jeffi]

Hi StephenB

Re:

"If I understand the logic correctly, "Home Night" should switch to Standby at 8 pm, and Home Daytime should switch to Arm Home at 7 am."

Yes I meant 8pm. I had copied and pasted and missed that change, sorry. 

Re:

"As far as correct operation goes, it looks like "Arrive Home" always sets the mode to "Arm Home".  So if you return home after 8 pm, the system would remain in Arm Home overnight.  It would shift back to Standby at 8 pm the following night.

1. Have you checked that case?
2. If I am misunderstanding the logic, then what tells the system to go into Standby when you return home after 8 pm?

One workaround would be to manually switch the system to "Standby"."

I had not tested that until tonight and yes you are correct it remained in Arm mode and I manually had to set to Standby. This is the only thing that I did not cater for in the logic. I think I may have fixed this and will try again and report back. 

Otherwise, your logic is worth trying. 

[Jeffi]

Hi Richland

If between StephenB and I we find a set of rules that work flawlessly, we'll repost without the typos and some screenshots to make it easier to see. 

[Jeffi]

Perhaps delete and start from scratch. But trying to replicate the old way with a simple schedule and leave/arrive either pops up a conflict error or seems to be accepted but just works unpredictably. 

[Jeffi]

I can confirm that leaving home and the geofence zone during Standby mode does now go into Arm Away mode and on return home its reverts back to Standby mode if my return is within its set time period.

What was required for this fix: All three 3 Modes should have all automations selected. In my case this is the two schedules for daytime and night time periods, and the arrive and leave automation.

The logic to prevent conflicts and switch mode correctly is set in the automations tab for the leave and arrive, see screen shots.

[Richland]

Thank you! I’m at my wit’s end. I can’t get anything to work and now with this last app update on the 21st of August, it’s showing 3 iPhones as authorized users and there’s only 2 of us in the house with the app. 

[Richland]

The problem with only using schedules is that my husband is a contractor and works out of our home. He is not going to manually do anything with Arlo. This is why geofencing during the day was great. Then we scheduled all cameras to be armed from 9 pm until 6 am. That’s the only reason I went with Arlo. Geofencing. Now that’s totally broken. I can’t even get schedules to work. 

[Richland]

I can’t get the screen shots for some reason. Can you repost?

[Jeffi]

Have you tried my approach - I have schedules and geofencing working well together, with standby overnight?